Posts Tagged ‘economy

Bailouts! Bailouts!

Get your Bailouts!

Not familar with Ponzi schemes? It works on the “rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul” principle, as money from new investors is used to pay off earlier investors until the whole scheme collapses. This is how the predatory capitalism has always worked, but a one Charles Ponzi was a hugely success with it, who duped thousands of New England residents into investing in a postage stamp speculation scheme back in the 1920s. Ponzi thought he could take advantage of differences between U.S. and foreign currencies used to buy and sell international mail coupons. Ponzi told investors that he could provide a 40% return in just 90 days compared with 5% for bank savings accounts. Ponzi was deluged with funds from investors, taking in $1 million during one three-hour period—and this was 1921! Though a few early investors were paid off to make the scheme look legitimate, an investigation found that Ponzi had only purchased about $30 worth of the international mail coupons.

Here is the real crazy part though; Knowingly entering a Ponzi scheme, even at the last round of the scheme, can be rational in the economic sense if a government will likely bail out those participating in the Ponzi scheme.

Another billionaire losing his empire of lies, drowning in debt, was German Adolf Merckle. Merckle headed the world’s 94th biggest fortune, according to Forbes magazine, with a total net worth last March of more than 6.7 billion euros ($10 Billion cdn), killed himself becuase he owed over 30 creditor banks massives amounts of money, but could only secure a three-month loan of 400 million euros!?

The whole system of capitalism is bankrupt. People riot in the streets to end it.

However most of the power crazy elite keep repeating their mantras to the masses that everything is good. Double plus good. Safe behind security.

Which is such obvious bullshit if your most of the people of the world outside the superclass and their brainwashed victims.

We need a global form of crisis intervention for the capitalist addict, because the money junkies are ruining the place. If we don’t come to grips with a reality that is destructive to all our futures, we may have to pay the ultimate price of capital’s punishment, not as individuals but as a society .

PRINT INFO: In a concept similar to “Robin Hood” I am taking an active role in helping those less fortunate. I am selling the “GIVING TO THE POOR” print at an affordable cost hoping to get as many people involved in this benevolent project as possible. 100% of ALL PROFITS will be donated to both these Homeless shelters. I have carefully selected these Homeless shelters because of each of their long-standing active role in the Homeless community. Each respective Homeless shelter stands out because they accept and strive to help those without a home get assistance regardless of RELIGION, RACE, POLITICS or SEXUAL PREFERENCE. Learn more about each of their specific Missions and Values here. E.C.S. SHELTER (http://www.ecs-sf.org/about/mission.html) and C.H.-CENTER (http://www.cardinalhumecentre.org.uk/editorial.asp?page_id=69)

The plans for a ‘new world order’ are now coming out of the closet and being openly discussed, a marked change from the denials and credibility attacks of only being a conspiracy theory of ‘tinfoil hats’.

Jacques Attali, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, argues that: “Global governance is just a euphemism for global government.” As far as he is concerned, some form of global government cannot come too soon. Mr Attali believes that the “core of the international financial crisis is that we have global financial markets and no global rule of law”.

“So, it seems, everything is in place. For the first time since homo sapiens began to doodle on cave walls, there is an argument, an opportunity and a means to make serious steps towards a world government.” – Gideon Rachman

The argument? we already have global warming, a global financial crisis and a global “war on terror”, so why not global government?

Rachman continues; “In general, the Union (EU) has progressed fastest when far-reaching deals have been agreed by technocrats and politicians – and then pushed through without direct reference to the voters. International governance tends to be effective, only when it is anti-democratic.

The world’s most pressing political problems may indeed be international in nature, but the average citizen’s political identity remains stubbornly local. Until somebody cracks this problem, that plan for world government may have to stay locked away in a safe at the UN.”

What a difference a year makes. Only last November, Iceland’s status as one of the most successful economies in the West was underlined when it was judged the best place to live in the world.

Iceland had ousted Norway from the head of the UN’s league table of 177 countries that compared per-capita income, education, health care and life expectancy – which, at 80.55 years for males, was third highest in the world.

This was only one in a string of glowing assessments of a country (population 313,000) which had pulled off a modern-day economic miracle. No wonder they are also said to be the happiest people on the planet. The inhabitants of this newly discovered Utopia, with its much-admired free health and education systems, bought the most books, owned most mobile telephones per head, and included the highest proportion of working women in the world.

The dramatic change in Iceland, from the poor relation of Europe to one of its wealthiest and apparently most successful, and now back again, dates from the mid-1990s with the privatisation of the banks and the founding of the country’s Stock Exchange.

Iceland had also presided over the fastest expansion of a banking system anywhere in the world. Little did anyone know that the expansion once so admired would go on to saddle the country with liabilities in excess of $100 billion – liabilities that now dwarf its gross domestic product of $14 billion.

Iceland overreached itself in spectacular fashion, and the party is coming to a messy end.

Since then the Icelandic stock exchange has dropped by more than 90%, and the Icelandic króna has declined more than 35 percent against the euro from January to September 2008. Inflation of prices in the economy was running at 14 percent. Iceland’s interest rates had been raised to 15.5 percent to deal with the high inflation,and the króna’s decline is reportedly only beaten by that of the Zimbabwean dollar.This depreciation in currency value put pressure on banks in Iceland, which were largely dependent on foreign debt.

Then in October, the three biggest banks, Kaupthing Bank hf, Landsbanki Island hf and Glitnir Bank hf have collapsed under the weight of about $61 billion in debts, 12 times the size of the economy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Then the UK got cold feet over the money Iceland owed it.

So in the UK, the Landsbanki Freezing Order 2008, passed at 10 a.m. on 8 October 2008 to come into force ten minutes later, the UK Treasury went on to freeze the assets of Landsbanki and assets belonging to the Central Bank of Iceland, and the Government of Iceland relating to Landsbanki. The freezing order took advantage of provisions in sections 4 and 14 and Schedule 3 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, and was made “because the Treasury believed that action to the detriment of the UK’s economy (or part of it) had been or was likely to be taken by certain persons who are the government of or resident of a country or territory outside the UK.”

Then UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced that the UK government would launch legal action against Iceland over concerns with compensation for the estimated 300,000 UK savers.

No longer smiling, office workers hurry home wondering out loud if they will have jobs to go to by the end of the week. Car showrooms are deserted. Estate agents are closing early. There are few takers for the thousands of unsold houses on their books. An unexpected cold spell is keeping many people inside their homes, another reason why the shops, many of which have discount sales, are quiet.

Iceland’s rugged, treeless terrain, a barren stretch of volcanic rock, geysers and moss, means the country imports most of its food, other than meat, fish and dairy products. So for weeks now Iceland’s largest supermarket chains has been unable to get any foreign currency to make purchases abroad and another retailer’s electronic payment didn’t go through. Iceland has begun to see shortages of “regular goods'”. Wholesalers are demanding that importers pay before any goods are shipped, said Knutur Signarsson, head of the Reykjavik-based Federation of Icelandic Trade.

Icelanders are paying more for the goods they do get. The cost of fruits and vegetables, nearly all of which are imported, have gone up about 50 percent in recent months, said Steinunn Kristinsdottir, a 33-year-old Reykjavik resident who was leaving the Bonus store with her cart full.

“This situation really has been a bit troubling for people,” she said. “They don’t know what’s going to happen.”

So all this has lead to growing protests in Reykjavik calling for the government and heads of the banks to resign over its handling of the economy. On Novemeber 23, a breakaway group of several hundred protesters gathered outside the city’s main police station, after a larger demonstration, to demand the release of a man jailed in a previous demonstration. Some in the group tried to storm the police building. The man they wanted to release was later freed, after a fine he owed over a previous demonstration was paid by an “anonymous benefactor”.

Perhaps the police realized they were outnumbered and couldn’t win. Resign already.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty warned that the world’s largest economies shouldn’t re-engineer the global financial system, and said the Group of Seven nations hasn’t considered intervening in currency markets.

Flaherty, in an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday in New York, said the best approach is for the G-7 governments to focus first on shoring up their own regulatory frameworks.

“We don’t need to recreate the world right now,” Flaherty said. “What people expect of us, quite frankly, in our countries is to get our own houses in order.”

The U.S. will host a global economic summit of 20 world leaders in Washington beginning Nov. 14. The agenda will include discussion of the causes of the financial crisis and a review of progress in addressing them.

The RAND Corporation is a notoriously powerful NGO with deep ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex as well as interlocking connections with the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations.

According to reports at PrisonPlanet which translated top Chinese mainstream news outlets, the RAND Corporation recently presented a proposal to the Pentagon in which it lobbied for a war to be started with a major foreign power in an attempt to stimulate the American economy and prevent a recession.

The reports cite French media news sources as having uncovered the proposal, in which RAND suggested that the $700 billion dollars that has been earmarked to bailout Wall Street and failing banks instead be used to finance a new war which would in turn re-invigorate the flagging stock markets.

China’s biggest media outlet, Sohu.com, speculated that the target of the new war would probably be China or Russia, but that it could also be Iran or another middle eastern country. Japan was also mentioned as a potential target for the reason that Japan holds the most U.S. debt. North Korea was considered as a target but ruled out because the scale of such a war would not be large enough for RAND’s requirements.